Extra Innings Exclusively on DirecTV

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Here's one for the holy crap file:

Came home to an answering machine message from Cablevision saying
they were working on the negotiations and that they'll credit your cable bill
the $15 a month for signing up for MLB.tv in the interim.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Same thing happened to me. (See the fourth post on this page, above.)

[Guest Kid Carsey]

I'm senile.

[Farmer Ted]

NEW YORK (AP) -- After negotiations that went into extra innings, baseball struck a deal to keep its "Extra Innings" package of out-of-market games on cable television.

Under pressure from Sen. John Kerry, baseball and iN Demand reached an agreement in principle Wednesday on a seven-year contract, a deal that likely will allow the sport's new TV network to be available in at least 40 million homes when it launches in 2009.

Baseball announced an exclusive seven-year, $700 million agreement with DirecTV on March 8, but viewers who would have lost TV access to the games complained.

"The concern expressed by our fans who would have been forced to switch to alternative carriers or were unable to switch was something we tried to be responsive to," baseball chief operating officer Bob DuPuy said.

Kerry had asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the original deal, and during a hearing last week in Washington he pushed baseball to resume talks with iN Demand, owned by affiliates of Time Warner, Comcast and Cox. While baseball had set a March 31 deadline, the sides kept negotiating and announced a deal Wednesday night, an agreement that still must be finalized.

"All we ever wanted was a victory for the fans, and this outcome is a big step forward," Kerry said in a statement. "Everyone kept talking and pressing until we had a deal that protects the rights of most fans to follow their hometown team."

IN Demand began making games available to cable systems in progress starting at 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday, president Robert Jacobson said. The package will be available for $159 this year through a free preview period that will extend into next week, he said, but the 2007 price for those subscribing after that has not been set.

"I'm exhausted but happy," Jacobson said. "We always needed to feel like we were treated fairly relative to the other distributor. We felt like got our fair share."

As part of the agreement, iN Demand and DirecTV each will receive about 16 percent equity in the new network, a person familiar with the deal said, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail wasn't announced. Under the original agreement, DirecTV was to be a 20 percent owner.

In Demand will make the "Extra Innings" package available to other cable companies, which also would be required to carry the MLB channel. Baseball is willing to resume negotiate with Echostar's Dish Network, baseball spokesman Rich Levin said, but DirecTV president Chase Carey said he anticipated for now that his company would be an exclusive satellite carrier.

The dispute was largely over baseball's desire to have a deal that will allow its network to be widely available on a basic cable tier. At 40 million homes, it would be one of the largest launches in cable history.

"It provides both the financial stability and the exposure to ensure a successful launch of the channel and bring the game to as many fans as possible," DuPuy said.

Because of the new deal, DirecTV will pay less than it would have under the original agreement.

"The economics are better for us on the 'Extra Innings' side," Carey said. "Clearly there were benefits you had in capturing subs (subscribers). We were paying a lot of money to get it. At what price? We weighed all the positives of each."

[Frayed Knot]

]a deal that likely will allow the sport's new TV network to be available in at least 40 million homes when it launches in 2009

"40 million" certainly sounds like a lot when quoted w/o any context but really isn't when compared to all cable-wired homes in the country. Sounds to me that the new MLB channel will NOT be put onto the most basic tier for most systems and that MLB caved somewhat from their initial stance.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I'm glad that the cable subscribers will be able to watch their baseball.

And if I ever decide that I want to ditch DirecTV I'm glad I'll have cable as an option to fall back on.

The cable spokesman who said that it would be "impossible" for them to match DirecTV's deal is responsible for a lot of lost customers.

I guess I really didn't need to switch to DirecTV, but I won't dwell on that now that it's all behind me.

This whole thing has been very stupid, though. The Baseball Channel will probably have about 1,000 viewers, and most of them will be over 50 years old.

[Frayed Knot]

I don't know how well these sport-specific channels (NFL, NBA, Golf, etc) are doing, but all these sports want one because it gives them the ability to control their own product and, even if they're mosey losers now, they see them as the wave of the future.

As usual the NFL channel is likely the most popular and, because that sport has the smallest inventory (256 games/yr vs 2,430 for MLB), moving a handful of games to their own channel will always be the bigger draw and have the bigger impact. But even they can't get the cable systems to clear a spot for them and are relying exclusively on DirecTV for distribution.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Cablevision ain't exactly rushing to get the service on.

Imagine baseball viewing today if Harry Caray had gotten a vasectomy.

[metirish]

] BREAKING NEWS: CABLEVISION TO CARRY EI! You read it here first (I think) . . . Cablevision struck a deal Friday with Major League Baseball and In Demand, a consortium of other cable companies, to carry MLB�s �Extra Innings�� package of out-of-market games. The package had been in limbo for months, even after other cable companies made an agreement as the season began. Like DirecTV, the leading satellite TV company, and cable giants Comcast, Time Warner and Cox, Cablevision agreed as part of the deal to put the MLB Channel that is scheduled to launch in 2009 on its digital basic level. Cablevision said �Extra Innings�� would be available immediately at a price of $159. Although Cablevision had offered a rebate of the $90 cost for Internet-based mlb.tv to anyone who subscribed to �Extra Innings�� last year, many fans of teams other than the Mets or Yankees were frustrated by no longer having access to the TV version of the out-of-market package. Now they have it back. Cablevision faced a deadline of the end of business Friday to make an agreement, or it would have been shut out of �Extra Innings�� through 2013. Now everyone can stop e-mailing to ask me about this. (Just kidding. I love it when you e-mail. Sort of. As long as I don't have to respond.)

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/watchdog/blog/

[Frayed Knot]

"Cablevision said “Extra Innings’’ would be available immediately at a price of $159"

Isn't that the usual price?
If so then - in typical Cablevision fashion - for missing approx 16% of the season you're getting a 0% discount.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Freakin's whores is all they are, from the top down. Whore I talked to said
they'd prorate the price automatically, we'll see. Whore tried to get me to
buy the fight too, I told him I was going to the fight and he believed me.

That being said, it's nice to come home to Nats/Cubs from Wrigley so I ain't
be that pissed. I really got addicted to having this, I feel like I just scored an
eight ball.